How can we miss you if you won't go away?

No, not the guy that talks to dead people. (Although this one has done that, as well.) That’s John Edward — no “s” at the end of the name. I’m talking about John EdwardS, the former Senator from North Carolina who John Kerry picked as his running mate on the Breck Boys Ticket.

Former Senator (and, by the grace of god, ALMOST vice-president of the United States) Edwards is in New Hampshire this week, for the third time this year. Such frequent visits are usually the hallmark of politicians considering a run for the presidency — no matter how delusional.

Edwards is doing all the other things a would-be candidate does, too. He’s not just visiting New Hampshire, but he’s giving speeches and raising money all across the county. He’s got a Political Action Committee set up (The “One America Committee”) that’s piled up 2.9 million dollars for the 2006 elections. And he’s just dying to tell us all what he thinks of Judge John Roberts, President Bush’s nominee for the Supreme Court.

Edwards wants to make sure we don’t look at his vote for Judge Roberts back in 2003 as an endorsement. You see, Judge Roberts’ “radical, protect-the-powerful jurisprudence” and his being “someone who opposed efforts to remedy discrimination on the basis of sex and race… (s)omeone who opposed measures to protect voting rights” is just fine to sit on the DC Circuit Court Of Appeals, but would be a horrendous error to elevate him to the Supreme Court.

I hate to douse Former Senator Edwards with such a cold dose of reality (because I fear that it might affect him like the witch in “The Wizard Of Oz,” and I don’t feel he deserves to be killed for his views), but here are a couple simple facts he might want to keep in mind:

1) If the American people really wanted his opinion of Supreme Court justices, they would have elected him Vice-President last November and he could advise his boss, Presiden Kerry (shudder) all he likes.

2) If he wanted to actually have some say in Supreme Court Justices, he could have run for a second term in the Senate and have been one of the 100 Senators who will vote up or down on Judge Roberts. But his own constituents made it abundantly clear that they were in no way interested in sending him back to DC. Kerry’s tapping of Edwards only postponed slightly his descent into political oblivion — it didn’t end it.

3) John Edwards became a multi-millionaire as a personal injury lawyer. If Judge Edwards (correction — Judge Roberts) has a swine like Edwards howling so loudly, there must be something damned good about him.

Go back and chase a few more ambulances, Former Senator. I hear there are still a few doctors delivering babies in North Carolina that you haven’t sued and chased out of state yet.

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The public might need to be reminded not merely of the way Edwards reaped his huge personal fortune, but also of his style in doing so. The “talking to the dead” part was actually an extremely stagy and deceptive talking for a dead baby, which supposedly “needed out.” In defiance of all medical knowledge, Edwards made use of ploys such as this to persuade naive juries to vote huge malpractice awards, one-third of which went to him.

This man doesn’t deserve to be a civil-service janitor, much less an elected official of these United States.

If I might inquire, Jay Tea, what, exactly, do you have against personal-injury lawyers? Can I infer from your comment that if you suffer injury, you would prefer to represent yourself in court and at settlement negotiations?

–|PW|–

xanthropeJuly 30, 2005

If Judge Edwards has a swine like Edwards howling so loudly, there must be something damned good about him.

I think you meant Roberts.

If not I am outraged that you would slander such a good man by calling him an unctious weasel, Edwards.

bullwinkleJuly 30, 2005

He’s running for vice-president again, just like he did last time. He’s no idiot, he knows anyone from the north needs a southern boy on the ticket and he’s pretty sure the nominee is going to be from the north. He can’t be elected president so he’ll settle for being a heartbeat away, and pray that other heart stops beating. I hate to admit it, but if that other heart is president Hillary’s I can’t imagine that being anything than a benefit to all mankind. If you think Bill Clinton was an embarrassment last time, just wait till he’s our first lady.

She’d discard Bill like a used condom once the final recount came out in her favor.

Just MeJuly 30, 2005

Edwards is so smarmy, he really missed his calling as a used car salesman.

I wish he would just go away-I am really not in the mood for several more years of the “two America’s” speech.

Eneils BaileyJuly 30, 2005

I always found his “two Americas” speech to be disgusting. It left people at the lower soci-economic level thinking that the only way to improve their lot in life was to throw in with this jerk and he would make sure the government would help them rob the rich. It was nothing more than classic liberal socialism and class envy coming out of a pretty boy “pie hole.” This divisive rhetoric coupled with the now famous “winning life’s lottery” does ring a bell with the uneducated and ignorant. I have a tendency to believe if you get educated, get a job, plan a career, then get married, then have kids, your chance of of “winning life’s lottery” improves astronomically. Personal reponsibility speeches don’t exist on the left, only the blame someone else tripe.

joeJuly 30, 2005

pennywit:

I have a problem with dishonest personal injury lawyers. Edwards trolled for cerebal palsy kids, convinced their families that it was the doctor’s fault, sued the doctors, channeled babies in front of juries, and destroyed careers to make money. The theory that cerebal palsy is always caused by delayed delivery has been thoroughly discredited. No matter; now doctors in NC and elsewhere perform C-sections at the first sign of delay. So now, women’s health care has taken a decline as the C-sections are not minor surgery. You can thank Edwards and his ilk for that. Oh, and by the way, the cerebal palsy rate is still the same.

mrs. redJuly 30, 2005

I can’t believe John Edwards doesn’t understand that if he wasn’t elected Vice-President, he won’t be elected President. He is disgusting to say the least.

I have no more problem with PI lawyers, per se, as I do with criminal defense ones, or public defenders, or even prosecuters

*IF* they act in accordance with their duties under the law in an ethical manner.

Unfortunately, when it becomes just another game, where being the winner no matter what comes into play, ethics and duty to fact and justice goes out the window. Due cases where burglars fall through ceilings and get injury awards, or people doing truly boneheaded stuff and able to successfully sue whatever deep pocket is around (another part of the problem is judges unwilling to have the courage to toss out frivilous suits) one warps the culture …

witness how many elementary schools are stripping their playgrounds of all equipment and even forbidding running on the playground!

Despite the 150 watt smile and the Pretty Pony hair, Edwards is but an ambulance chaser who is preys as much on his clients as he does on the rest of us.

HMJuly 30, 2005

As a real estate/transactional lawyer in NC, with a brother/litigator who has defended a Doc from Edwards, I can tell you that the criticism is largely justified. There are many fine and ethical PI lawyers around, but he ain’t one of ’em.

Down here we say he’s the kind of lawyer you shake hands with, and then count how many fingers you still have left. ..

s9July 30, 2005

Dude. You live in New Hampshire. It’s July 2005. That’s when SillySeason™ arrives in your state. I don’t even live there and I know that.

If it’s such a bother to have to endure the political process happening in your state, then move to another one— like, say, California— where the Presidential campaigns mostly don’t even notice you until the nomination fights are already settled. Either that, or get up off your out-of-shape butt and activate your neighbors to do something about your ridiculously early primary election.

Or could it be that the real problem here is… it bugs the living fsck out of you that Democrats still have to go through the same old hassle of nominating a candidate to go into the election opposing the PartyOfGod™?

Tar HeelJuly 30, 2005

Anyone who looked closely at Edwards’ law career, or had the open-mindedness to read his book, FOUR TRIALS, would recognize that he is as fine a voice as we have in the public domain.

He is honest, he is smart, he cares about people with no voice.

And the North Carolinian who says that people down here don’t like him, and don’t trust him…well, that person is just flat out wrong. He is much beloved down here, except by the right-wingers who fear his political promise.

He is much beloved down here, except by the right-wingers who fear his political promise.

Are you saying, then, that NC has a majority of “right-wingers”? ’cause Edwards decided to not run for Senate again knowing he just wasn’t going to win.

Or is it your contention that a vote against Pretty Pony transmogrifies one into a “right-winger”?

Eneils BaileyJuly 30, 2005

Tar Heel,
I,won’t argue with you about his personal traits, honesty, intregity, and intelligence. They are what they are, people can and have made up their minds. If he was so great and had such widespread support why didn’t he help the democrats carry at least one state in the South, including yours? Karl Rove made him do it.

bullwinkleJuly 30, 2005

He only cared about people with no voice if their case would bring him a minimum of $100,000. He never did any pro bono work, ever. Yep, he cares about the people like Air America does, for a profit. Liberal compassion.

HMJuly 30, 2005

Not to pile on old “Tar Heel” too much, but he didn’t even vote in prior elections and obviously had no interest in “The Public” until he decided to run for Senate.

And, as you libs like to forget history (and are doomed to repeat much of its misfortue), he couldn’t even carry his home county where his “Diddy” worked in a mill.

Now, I’ve got to say he did well by my family, but we went looking for him, not vice versa. I don’t know why he left a profession he did extremely well in to be in something he really sucks at. I suppose he could run for Senate again, but I doubt many in NC are interested in having him back. I’m trying to remember that embarrassment of a Senator… oh yeah, Lauch Faircloth. What a maroon.

Oh, and he got a third of the out-of-court settlement for our family… just in case y’all wondered what his take was.

fromncJuly 30, 2005

Talk about policy and we’ll listen. Stop the personal attacks. The guy’s a good man. If you don’t agree with him, fine. Don’t make fun of his accent, background, or character (which you, frankly, know nothing about).

scottJuly 30, 2005

meep-

Now, I’ve got to say he did well by my family, but we went looking for him, not vice versa.

That’s the only “sign of approval” that’s proved trustworthy for any prostitute I’ve ever known…

bullwinkleJuly 30, 2005

fromnc, I think we can tell quite a bit about his character by the fact that he’s refused several cases that didn’t meet him minimum settlement requirements, he opens the door for that by claiming to care for the “common man”. Common men don’t have multi-million dollar settlements in their futures. We can also tell even more about his character by the fact that he’s never done any pro bono work, when you have $50,000,000 in the bank you can afford to take a few days, weeks, even months off to do a little work for the people you claim to care so much about. He’s a greedy money-grubbing ambulance-chasing mutli-millionaire personal injury lawyer with the morals of an alley cat and the manner typical of all liberals, dishonestly claiming to be compassionate and speaking endlessly about two Americas while doing everything in his power to assure his place in the higher ranked one. Hypocrisy is so common among liberals they never even notice, and you’ve proven it again.

HMJuly 30, 2005

His house at Figure Eight Island (a gated, private island) is probably worth $2,000,000, but I’m sure he connected with the “little guy” sweating the construction of his spread.

And for all you quasi-lawyers who read his book and claim expertise in things Johnny, how about the time he argued (and won, by the way) a $42M case against a swimming pool company by invoking the memory of his recently deceased son with the jury to argue his case. That sort of base, meglomaniacal example speaks volumes about his character, or lack thereof.

Highly innappropriate, and usually ruled out of order, to argue from personal experience–not to say highly prejudicial. But, hey, he’s Johnny!

Eneils BaileyJuly 31, 2005

John “Jackpot Justice” Edwards chose to put certain aspects of his professional life into the public arena when he first strutted into a court room and argued a case. His decision to run for the Senate opened his personal life to the public for scrutiny. Then, he chose to run for Vice President of the United States. If he did not want his professional and public life opened up for examination he should have stayed out of the court room and out of politics. As long as he tramps around the country, trying to raise money for his next attempt at a national public office, he is fair game. It’s politics, and character and background does matter. He gets no free pass here.